Euripides, Medea 486–7

Extract

So Diggle's recent text and apparatus criticus; so too its predecessor in the Oxford series (Murray). Advocates of πντα δ' ξεῖλον ϕ ϕβον have, however, been in a considerable majority, and include Porson, Elmsley, Bothe, Weil, Wecklein, Nauck, Paley, Verrall, Meridier, and, more recently, Schiassi (1967) and Ebener (1972). But Page's objection (ad loc.) cannot be lightly dismissed: ‘With ϕ ϕβον here, σο must be understood; and the ellipse seems intolerable.’ To this I would add what appears to have been largely disregarded, namely that the contextual and thematic significance of δμον is an even stronger argument in its favour. Medea is ἄπολις (255, cf. 645–53 [ἄπολις 646], 386), having lost not only her home in Colchis (31–5, 166–7, 798–801) but also her new home in Corinth (139, 275–81, 359–60, 435–8). In a sense the fate cruelly forced upon the daughters of Pelias by Medea (487 πντα τ' ξεῖλον δμον) is now visited upon Medea herself, who finds herself deserted and alone (513). This isolation brings with it the realization that to those to whom she should be ϕίλη she is now χθρ (her family in Colchis, 506–8), while those whom she should be able to regard as ϕλoι are now χθρ (Jason, 467; even her children, 36, 112–14, 116–17; cf. the pointed, programmatic νν δ' χθρ πντα κα νοσεῖ τ ϕλτατα in 16). Her response? As Medea had done in Iolcus, so δμον τε πντα συγχασʼ Ἰονος | ἔξετιτι γαας κτλ. (794–5; cf. 114 πς δμος ἔρροι).